AI in Action | May 2024

Last week, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Senators Rounds, Heinrich, and Young released their bipartisan AI Policy Roadmap with policy recommendations to invest in and regulate artificial intelligence.  Recognizing and addressing the genuine risks associated with AI is crucial for its responsible advancement.  By addressing these concerns head-on, we can ensure we’re maximizing its benefits for all Americans.

When guided by ethics, transparency, and fairness, responsible AI can spark creativity and help usher in a more prosperous and sustainable future.  It has the potential to help us solve the greatest challenges of our time from health care, agriculture, and education to transportation, energy, and national security.

Learn more about the AI Policy Roadmap and see how AI is improving our lives, growing our economy, and keeping us safe in this month’s AI in Action.

AI in Spotlight

Senate Unveils AI Policy Roadmap

Last week, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Todd Young (R-IN), unveiled their policy roadmap for harnessing AI’s full potential while addressing its risks.  The roadmap calls for robust funding for the U.S. AI Safety Institute, the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR), the Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs program, retrofitting NIST laboratories for the modern era, and other key priorities.  It also calls for investments to strengthen America’s workforce through STEM education, upskilling and training programs, and our ability to attract and retain the world’s best talent.  The roadmap encourages the passage of several pieces of legislation, including the CREATE AI Act, which would authorize the NAIRR and lower the barrier to entry for AI research, and acknowledges the importance of implementing AI guardrails to protect our democratic institutions, from elections to national security.

“The U.S. must be the global leader in AI investment, development, and deployment to ensure it is implemented safely across the world.  The Senate’s AI Roadmap will strengthen America’s global competitiveness in AI and emerging technologies, empower a new generation of AI leaders, expand innovation and opportunity beyond Silicon Valley, and keep America at the forefront of scientific development for generations to come,” TechNet President and CEO Linda Moore said in a statement, which you can read here.

AI in Spotlight

NIH researchers developed an AI tool to more precisely match cancer drugs to patients

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have developed an AI tool called PERCEPTION that can predict whether a person’s cancer will respond to a specific drug by utilizing high-resolution gene expression data from individual cells inside tumors.  The development of the PERCEPTION AI tool could lead to significant advancements in personalized cancer treatments and has the potential to revolutionize how doctors match cancer patients with drugs tailored to their specific tumor biology, leading to more effective and targeted treatments.
Learn more.

Google and EDF are combining AI and cutting-edge satellite technology to reduce global methane emissions

Google is partnering with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to reduce global methane emissions, one of the most powerful, short-term actions we can take to reduce warming.  EDF’s new satellite, MethaneSAT — which launched into orbit on March 4, 2024 — will measure and track methane with unprecedented precision, offering a comprehensive view of methane emissions worldwide.  Google is helping EDF quantify and trace methane emissions to their source by applying AI and methane detection algorithms to data and satellite imagery gathered by MethaneSAT.  With this information, energy companies, researchers, and the public sector can take action to more quickly and efficiently reduce emissions from oil and gas infrastructure.
Learn more.

Bellwether and the National Guard are harnessing AI to transform disaster relief

Bellwether, a new group within Alphabet’s innovation lab “X,” has developed new AI-powered tools to analyze aerial imagery of disaster scenes in seconds, allowing the National Guard to respond to disasters faster and more effectively.  The National Guard oversees all disaster response carried out by the U.S. military and plays a pivotal role in domestic disaster operations.  Damage assessments are a critical first step to understanding the impact of disaster events before and during a response.  However, the National Guard is saddled with a cumbersome, manual system that can often delay the relief process by hours or even days.  As extreme weather events like wildfires and floods become more common, first responders need new tools to identify damage to critical infrastructure and deliver relief efforts more immediately following disasters.  Bellwether’s new AI-powered tools can analyze photos taken at an angle by airplanes, compare them with satellite imagery and maps, and automatically identify locations, roads, buildings, and critical infrastructure and create labeled maps in a matter of seconds, drastically streamlining the damage assessment process and enabling faster and more precise disaster response coordination by the National Guard.  Bellwether has been testing the tech with the National Guard, which will deploy it in time for the summer wildfire season.
Learn more.

Did You Make Your Connecting Flight? You May Have AI to Thank.

The New York Times

California to tap generative AI tools to increase services access, reduce traffic jams

The Associated Press

Google Unveils AI for Predicting Behavior of Human Molecules

The New York Times

DOE aims to move “FASST” on AI with sweeping new initiative

Axios

AI for America

About AI for America

AI for America is a $25 million initiative to educate the public about how AI is being used to improve lives, grow our economy, and keep us safe.  The initiative combines coalition building, advocacy, social media, and traditional media to demonstrate the immense economic and societal benefits of AI.  AI for America is funded by TechNet, the national, bipartisan network of innovation economy CEOs and senior executives.  TechNet advances public policies at the federal and state level that make the United States the world leader in innovation.  Its diverse membership includes dynamic American businesses ranging from startups to the most iconic companies on the planet.  For more information, go to technet.org and AI4America.com.